Senate rejects another Whitmer appointee to hunting panel

For the second time this month, Michigan's Republican-led Senate has blocked one of Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's appointments to the state commission that regulates hunting and fishing. The Senate on Thursday rejected George Heartwell, a former mayor of Grand Rapids. Gun-rights groups opposed his nomination in part because, as mayor, he backed an ordinance banning guns in public buildings and was a member of a gun-control group co-founded by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. Heartwell, who no longer hunts but fishes, has said he supports the Second Amendment and hunting.